The path to normalization desired by the President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, continues to suffer from headwinds coming from her own camp, as the campaign for the European elections of 2024 approaches. Confusion thus reigned in her party, Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), Monday, August 21, following the sanctions taken against a serving officer, General Roberto Vannacci. Author of a book detailing racist and homophobic positions, he was repudiated by Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, even though some of M’s supportersme Meloni do not deny its content.
Self-published August 10, Il mondo al contrario (“The Upside Down”) ranks first in sales on Amazon in Italy. It is a compilation of attacks against what General Vannacci refers to as “the international gay lobby” and against those responsible for a supposed ” brainwashing “ in favor of “the elimination of all differences, including between ethnic groups, not to say between races”. This discourse accompanies reactionary positions on gender issues and environmental protection.
In a country whose executive is dominated by the extreme right, the officer drapes himself in a posture wishing to mix provocative spirit and popular common sense, to complain of ” rules of inclusion and tolerance imposed by minorities”. He also attacks Italian volleyball champion Paola Egonu. Target of obsessive racist attacks because of his Nigerian origins, the athlete is regularly at the heart of the identity panic attacks that the country goes through cyclically. General Vannacci returns to his case to detail his views on the matter, stating that he believes it is “Italian citizenship” but that he is “Obvious that his somatic traits do not represent Italianness. »
contortion exercises
If the speech is not original, taking up the themes of right-wing populism with which Mme Meloni was able to take some distance, the quality of its author forced the government to react. A week after the publication of the book, Guido Crosetto (FdI) affirmed Thursday on his X account (formerly Twitter) that “General Vannacci has expressed opinions which discredit the army, national defense and the constitution” before announcing “disciplinary review” against him. The suspension of the officer from his duties at the head of the Institute of Military Geography was announced the next day, forcing a right accustomed to accusations of censorship against the supporters of the ” politically correct ” to engage in painful contortion exercises.
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